Saturday, October 12, 2013

The expanded MLB Playoffs is not the problem I have with the MLB Playoffs in 1981 in the American League and National League. Its how they did it which is the problem. With the teams having the best records in first and second halves of the season in each division qualifying for the playoffs in each league. Which meant four teams making the playoffs in both leagues, which is how MLB did it from 1995-2011. Which again I don’t have a problem with, but how they did it.

Instead of having the teams that had the best records in their divisions for the entire season and have the two second place teams in each league qualifying as wildcards in each league, they had the best teams in the first halves of the season, play the teams with the best record of the second half of the season. Which meant teams like the Cincinnati Reds who had the best overall record in the NL West in 1981, missed the NL Playoffs. Because they didn’t have the best record in their division in either the first or second half of 1981.